The Shrink’s Links: Moral Injury

I knew a fellow who fought the Iraq War from the comfort and safety of an easy chair, piloting a drone that destroyed dozens of buildings with people in them. He was never at risk for anything more serious than tendonitis, yet he emerged from that experience with something kin to PTSD. We now have a name for it: Moral Injury.

Moral Injury refers to the wounding an individual’s conscience resulting from an act of moral transgression which produces profound shame.